Kolkata:
It has been over 12 years since 4 police constables and a personal safety guard have been killed, whereas 20 different individuals have been injured when terrorists attacked an American cultural centre in Kolkata on 22 January 2002. On Tuesday, a wreath-laying ceremony was organised in reminiscence deceased in Kolkata. The ceremony was attended by senior American diplomats together with, Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Safety Gentry O. Smith and Consul Common Kathy Giles-Diaz, together with senior West Bengal Police officers.
Chatting with reporters on the American Centre in Kolkata, Mr Smith talked about assaults on Indian consulates within the US and mentioned the discussions on safety-related points will come up when he’s in Delhi.
Notably, the Consulate Common of India in San Francisco was attacked twice in 2023–on March 19 and July 2–by a bunch of assailants who dedicated felony trespass, broken public property, and attacked officers of the Consulate. On March 19, 2023, protestors additionally tried to vandalise the Indian Excessive Fee in London and pulled down the nationwide flag whereas holding protests exterior the Excessive Fee final 12 months.
“I believe plenty of these conversations will happen when I’m in Delhi. Certainly one of my obligations within the place that I’ve is to make sure that all diplomats who serve inside the USA obtain a correct quantity of consideration. If there are safety points, we’re engaged about them. We’re engaged on the native stage, and we’re engaged at my stage as properly. I’ve personnel in a number of areas all through the US the place there are embassies and consulates. And principal to these areas is the security and safety of all of the diplomats who serve in these areas,” he mentioned.
Mr Smith additionally harassed the significance of safety for consulates, particularly within the backdrop of the assaults on Indian consulates in current occasions.
“My job is to make sure that our personnel can serve overseas in a secure method. We can’t try this with out the collaboration of those that have the identical obligations of safety within the international locations that we serve. From a reciprocal standpoint, we owe that to the diplomats who’re serving in the USA as properly,” he mentioned.
“We’re in touch with embassies, consulates and different international missions inside the US, to make sure that once we think about the entire obligations that we have now, we by no means lose sight of the truth that safety is a type of obligations as properly,” Mr Smith added.
Remembering the assault on the American Centre in 2002, Consul Common Kathy Giles-Diaz mentioned, “It’s unlucky that this assault occurred in Kolkata and we have now that tragic distinction of being the one place in India that has had an assault on an American diplomatic facility however I’ve been very grateful and proceed to be very grateful for the cooperation with the Police and with our native guard pressure.”